The present invention relates, in general, to the field of air bearing surface (xe2x80x9cABSxe2x80x9d) slider designs for use in conjunction with data transducers in rotating media random access computer mass storage devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a textured ABS design of especial applicability in devices which utilize an air bearing surface to control the flying height or spacing between two relatively moving surfaces such as in conjunction with the read/write elements in a hard disk drive.
Lowering the flying height of a slider carrying a data transducer in conjunction with a rotating computer mass storage element such as a disk is necessary to allow for the reading or writing of data which is stored with ever increasing areal density. In turn, this lowered flying height has resulted in the exacerbation of two critical tribological parameters. Firstly, a high degree of slider-to-media stiction is encountered when the heads are parked which might prevent the sliders carrying the read/write elements from separating from the media surface upon initial drive start-up rendering them unworkable. Secondly, severe contact start/stop (xe2x80x9cCSSxe2x80x9d) conditions and concomitant head and media wear may be experienced due to the decrease in the slider flying height and the trend toward ever faster media rotational speeds.
Heretofore, a number of differing approaches have been attempted with respect to ameliorating the problems of slider stiction and contact start/stop encountered due to ever decreasing slider flying heights and increasing media rotation speed. Among these has been the use of a ramp loading technique, the use of padded sliders and the provision of transversely textured media.
The first approach involves the provision of a ramp loading of the sliders and access arms to the media surface. However, this technique has generally not proven satisfactory and its use has been predominantly limited to hard disk drives having a 2.5 inch form factor. Moreover, due to the tight mechanical tolerance of the ramps required within the drive head disk assembly (xe2x80x9cHDAxe2x80x9d), this technique of necessity limits the number of disk media that can be incorporated in a particular drive design for a given form factor. Other problems include the necessity for providing the additional ramp components and modified suspension designs, the requirement for entirely new servo function algorithms and the uncertainty regarding the tribology of the ramp and suspension elements. Importantly, such a design fails if the sliders accidentally impact with or land on the media surfaces.
The use of padded sliders has also been attempted, but the technique is not as yet fully mature in the disk drive industry and is currently not a satisfactory solution. Importantly, it worsens the contact stop/start performance due to the protruding pads and it performs poorly in higher revolution per minute (xe2x80x9cRPMxe2x80x9d) designs which can result in severe pad wear and potentially cause high stiction problems.
Finally, the use of transversely textured media is, again, not yet a fully mature technology and requires the design and implementation of an entirely new manufacturing process to produce such textured media. Still further, the technique requires more research in order to fully optimize the texture design in order to minimize the risk of high slider-to-media stiction.
The textured air bearing surface design of the present invention provides a solution to the aforementioned problems, which is vastly superior to the three conventional techniques described. It not only solves the critical stiction and contact start/stop tribology problems but does so in an extremely efficient manner without requiring significant design changes and with only a relatively straightforward alteration to existing processes for producing conventional sliders.
The present invention advantageously provides a textured ABS design of particular utility in devices which utilize an air bearing surface to control the flying height or spacing between two relatively moving surfaces such as the sliders designed for use in conjunction with the read/write data transducer elements in a hard disk drive. The textured ABS slider design of the present invention functions extremely well with much lower laser bump heights (or even without the provision of laser bumps) which is a critical factor in achieving ever increasing higher data areal densities in disk drives while concomitantly providing acceptable slider-to-media stiction performance. Furthermore, the much earlier take-off characteristics of the textured ABS design herein disclosed renders it also of great importance for use with high RPM drive designs in order to achieve higher data throughput with decreased head and media wear.
Particularly disclosed herein is a slider for use in conjunction with a storage medium in a computer mass storage device. The slider comprises at least one air bearing surface formed on a surface proximal to the storage medium, the air bearing surface including generally coplanar leading and trailing edge portions and an intermediate portion therebetween. The slider also comprises at least one area formed in the intermediate portion of the air bearing surface, the area being non-coplanar with the leading and trailing edge portions and displaced from the storage medium.
Further disclosed herein is a process for producing a slider for use in conjunction with a storage medium in a computer mass storage device. The process comprises the steps of forming at least one air bearing surface on a surface of the slider proximal to the storage medium, the air bearing surface including generally coplanar leading and trailing edge portions and an intermediate portion therebetween, and removing at least one area in the intermediate portion of the air bearing surface, the area being non-coplanar with the leading and trailing edge portions and displaced from the storage medium.